All Roads to Kerala

This is a discussion on All Roads to Kerala within Route / Travel Queries, part of the Travelogues category; Originally Posted by DieselLover
Just returned from a Kochi-Bangalore-Bannerghatta-Kochi trip. Update on road conditions:
2. The section between Mannuthy and ...

Folks with my "high range" journey coming up next week, just wanted to know the road condition of:-
Pala->Kanjirapally->Mundakkayam->Vandiperiyar->Cumbum->Theni route.

The drive would be most likely early in the morning. Understand that it is raining heavily in Kerala and the roads may be bad. If the road conditions are really poor, have to re-route the drive via the usual Thrissur->Palakkad->Coimbatore byepass route :(.

The flyover is ready and so is the toll booth before Walayar, at Attappallam.

Quote:

Originally Posted by sachinpk

Folks with my "high range" journey coming up next week, just wanted to know the road condition of:-
Pala->Kanjirapally->Mundakkayam->Vandiperiyar->Cumbum->Theni route.

An acquaintance from Thodupuzha had cautioned travellers, through an FB post a couple of days back, against trying out the ghat areas as the incessant heavy rain can spell trouble at the wrong time. If I were you, I'd pick the "plain" route at this time of the year.

How was the drive from Vadakkenchery to Mannuthy during night. Did you encounter lot of traffic and how did you manage high beams especially from trucks?

Extremely difficult. Something I would like to avoid in future till they 4 lane the entire section. There was very little traffic towards Kochi (time was around 10 PM) but encountered heavy on coming traffic. Most of them were trucks driving on high beams. Also encountered few volvos who was driving on wrong lane most of the time. There were few private cars in between who will overtake multiple trucks blindly and either brake or swerve at last minute to get back into lane or avoid a pothole.

I was worried that I will either be pushed off the road or someone will ram me head on and decided to follow a decently driven truck all the way till Mannuthy. This worked well though it took around an hour to cover this stretch.

I normally cover this route in 8-8.25 hrs in bigger cars driving around 90-100 kmph. Only 1.5 hrs extra with substantial low speed was a surprise for me. Benefits include a much relaxed drive and 24 kmpl mileage returned (petrol). I am seriously thinking of reducing my speed to 80-85 kmph in future trips.

Folks - just back after a long (??) road trip from Kerala. Route taken:-
Thrissur->Angamaly->Perumbavoor->Muvatupuzha->Ettumanoor
1. Thrissur to Angamaly, good roads. It is a tolled highway, so roads would not be really bad. But it did have a few uneven surfaces and pot-holes here and there.
2. Angamaly-Perumbavoor-Muvatupuzha. Roads were good.
3. Muvatupuzha-Ettumanoor. Pathetic roads. On a positive note, there is some major road repair happening in this sector so may be future travellers would benefit. But for the time being, it could be avoided. There were areas where small cars would see their bottoms hitting the ground.

Ettumanoor->Pala->Kanjirapally->Eeratupetta->Mundakkayam->Peerumedu
1. Good road, though the traffic density is very high (I drove this sector in the late afternoon).
2. Even sedans can easily drive through.

Peerumedu->Cumbum->Theni->Dindigul
1. Good road all the way till Cumbum.
2. Tamil Nadu government seems to have got some good amount of funds. After Cumbum pretty much every culvert, or road over-bridges are getting rebuilt. Due to this steady speed cannot be maintained. Every 1-2 kilometer, one such activity would be there and a vehicle have to take a very short detour (just enought to byepass the construction area but through muddy roads).
3. The roads were also not in very decent shape - compared to other state highways in TN.
4. Roads were much better in Dindigul district limits.
5. From Dindigul onwards it is the usual tolled highway, good roads.

Now that the Sarjapur bypass is completed, BHPians from East Bangalore proceeding to Kerala via Salem should go via Sarjapur -Bagalur-Hosur rather than crowding the usual Attibelle, EC route. NH207 is getting widened and once this is completed, this route will be a breeze.

I used this route yesterday and the only issue I encountered was the Varthur market logjam which is usual on Sunday evenings.

Now that the Sarjapur bypass is completed, BHPians from East Bangalore proceeding to Kerala via Salem should go via Sarjapur -Bagalur-Hosur rather than crowding the usual Attibelle, EC route. NH207 is getting widened and once this is completed, this route will be a breeze.

Can you show the map depicting the sarjapur by pass. I was not able to locate the same on the map.